Beer of the Moment Article - Riggers' Wit

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	Paul Rigby

Hoegaarden Wit

History
The history of Belgian style wit beers has been covered in my previous article on Hoegaarden’s (pronounced - Who Garden) Forbidden Fruit or Verboden Vrucht in Flemish and Le Fruit Defendu in French. For your convenience (and mine) I have reproduced it again here.
“The Hoegaarden history is similar to so many Belgian and French abbey or trappist beers. In this case it began in the 1445 in the Flemish town of the same name in the wheat growing district of Brabant, east of Brussels, by monks (Naturally!) who by chance discovered this “new” white (wheat) beer style which enjoyed great popularity for many centuries. Ultimately two world wars and the emergence of the European mega-swill lager breweries saw the demise of the traditional white beer in 1957. In 1966 a Belgian milkman by the name of Pierre Celis together with some friends and family resurrected the style and opened a farmhouse brewery producing 350 hectolitres a year, this quickly grew to a peak of 75,000 hectolitres in 1985 when a fire destroyed the brewery. In order to rebuild a significant amount of financial help was required, enter Interbrew, a mega European conglomerate brewer with mega bucks (or Euros) to throw at the project. In 1987 Pierre Culis sold out and by 1997 Interbrew had driven production to 855,000 hectolitres, (that’s 855,000,000 litres or 300 Billion pots of Hoegaarden!), per annum!”
Brewed with malted or unmalted wheat, wits are usually flavoured with crushed coriander and orange peel, and are typically cloudy, hopped with noble hop varieties to achieve a low to medium bitterness and flavour and are usually quite dry with a low to medium body.

Enhanced Kit Version (23 Litres)
Unfortunately it is almost impossible to make a true wit bier from just a kit because one of the key characteristics of a wit bier is a milky cloudiness due to the use of unmalted wheat and this is beyond the realm of kit brewing. Other distinctive characteristics are coriander and orange/citrus flavour which can be achieved with little effort.
I suggest purchasing almost any wheat beer style kit, but a German style would be the best choice in my opinion. As usual I suggest using malt extracts rather than dextrose or sugar. Powdered wheat malt extract is now available and 1000gms of it would be my choice. To obtain the distinctive orange and coriander flavour simply add between 5 and 10 grams of freshly crushed coriander seeds and the finely sliced zest of half an orange to the fermenter when fermentation activity has slowed almost to a stop.
Follow your usual kit method for the remainder of the brew.

Malt Extract and Mini Mash Version (23 litres)
Base Malt - 1500gms Light Barley Malt Extract
1500gms Light Wheat Malt Extract
Mini mash - 1000gms Torrefied Wheat
Put 3 litres of cold water in a saucepan and add grains and heat up VERY SLOWLY (over a 25 to 30 minute period) until just short of boiling. Strain the liquid and put into a saucepan for the boil, discard the grain residue.
Hops – For bittering aim at around 16 IBU's using only noble hops. I recommend Goldings for bittering but you can really use any hop for this purpose. Grain & Grape staff will be happy to do the calculations for you.
Total boil time need only be 60 minutes with the bittering hops added at the start of the boil.
Yeast - There are a myriad of wheat yeasts available but only two specific Belgians, I recommend Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit as a first choice or Wyeast 3942 Belgian Wheat as a second choice, both are good but have different flavour profiles and it is a matter personal of choice. Grain & Grape staff will be happy to advise you on the pros and cons of each. If you prefer the convenience of dry yeast then try DCL Saf Wheat.
To obtain the distinctive coriander and orange/citrus flavours so characteristic of this style add 6gms of freshly crushed coriander seeds and the finely sliced zest of half an orange for the last 5 minutes of the boil. Once the beer has been racked into a secondary fermenter taste it and ascertain whether YOU want any more coriander or orange flavour. If you do then add either coriander or orange or both depending on what YOU are aiming at, the amount to add is somewhat hit and miss or guesswork and is really a personal choice.

Full Grain Version (23 litres)
Grains - 2700gms Pilsner Malt (approx 52%)
2000gms Torrefied Wheat (approx 38%)
500gms Oat Malt (Yes - malted oats) (approx 10%)
2 litres Rice Hulls
Mashing regimes are many and varied. Most modern malts are very well modified and only need a simple single step infusion mash to obtain very good results. Wheat malt is somewhat different to barley malt in that it has a much larger proportion of high molecular weight proteins (this factor then demands a slightly prolonged protein rest be undertaken) and is also huskless (this will effect the lautering process as the ratio of husks to grains is the key to effective lautering - hence the addition of the rice husks) in this case I suggest mashing in at protein preparation temperature of 50ºC and rest for 30 mins, raise to 1st saccrification temperature of 60ºC and rest for 50 mins, then raise to 2nd saccrification temperature of 70°C and rest for 10 mins. Raise temperature to mash out of 78°C for 10 mins.
Hops – For bittering aim at around 16 IBU's using any noble hop. Total boil time need only be 60 minutes with the bittering hops added at the start of the boil.
Yeast - There are a myriad of wheat yeasts available but only two specific Belgians, I recommend Wyeast 3944 Belgian Wit as a first choice or Wyeast 3942 Belgian Wheat as a second choice, both are good but have different flavour profiles and it is a matter personal of choice. Grain & Grape staff will be happy to advise you on the pros and cons of each. If you prefer the convenience of dry yeast then try DCL Saf Wheat.
To obtain the distinctive coriander and orange/citrus flavours so characteristic of this style add 6gms of freshly crushed coriander seeds and the finely sliced zest of half an orange for the last 5 minutes of the boil. Once the beer has been racked into a secondary fermenter taste it and ascertain whether YOU want any more coriander or orange flavour. If you do then add either coriander or orange or both depending on what YOU are aiming at, the amount to add is somewhat hit and miss or guesswork and is really a personal choice.